Benedicto Castory Mpoma
Iringa
Summary
Agricultural expert in tea with experience in both traditional extension service of training by visit and with the Farmer Field Schools (FFS) approach, International private voluntary sustainable agriculture standards, smallholders block farming establishment and management. A background experience on both public and private sectors successful on smallholder’s development and management. Currently, working with Service Company, Njombe Outgrowers Services Company (NOSC) as Senior Extension Officer
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
Work History
Operations Manager
Njombe Out growers Services Company (NOSC)
05.2023 - Current
- Oversee smallholders' farms management with the aim of improving productivity and, ensuring quality standards are met as per agreed company annual budget
- Ensure smallholders farms expansion and production are conducted as per agreed quality and annual plan targets, as per sole services provider on planting materials, fertilizer rates and types and agronomic best practices
- Make sure all smallholder farmers are certified and have signed an agreement with sustainable agriculture network standards that focus on the protection of natural environmental, social, and economic conditions of smallholder farmers and communities as well as Improving farmer's Income and livelihood
- Establish and manage cost effective tea seedlings nurseries as per agreed nurseries budgets
- Adequately manage the tea supply value chain activities in the fields to assure tea farmers of professional services based on farmers' production, productivity, quality, market competitiveness, and trading
- Develop annual agricultural Input requirements (Seedlings, herbicides & fertilizers) for smallholder farmers and the distribution calendar plan
- Provide professional backstopping to field’s management staff
- Ensuring challenges met on the ground are identified and managed in a timely manner
- Develop proposals on key emerging innovations that will lead to improvement of production and quality and present these to the General Manager for assessment and deliberation
- Develop quarterly staff KPls review (Monitoring and evaluation) focusing on project implementation against targets, challenges, and future mitigating measures
- Develop and manage farmers training needs and training schedules that focus on agronomic and sustainability issues Implemented and using different approaches like FFS and T&V
- Management Responsibilities-15%
- Participate in developing rolling budgets, monitoring and managing any assigned budget and ensuring costs remain
- Within agreed limits
- Advise the General Manager on short and long term strategies to be adopted for the successful deliver on the Njombe
- Programme Vision
- Mentor and build capacity of all Field staff, setting SMART targets and key performance indicators (KPI's), conducting staff appraisals and monitoring their motivation
- Engage the Government at village and ward levels to ensure their understanding and buy in of the Njombe project vision, mission, goals, objectives, and annual targets
- Participate in the strategic planning and management of the project's agreed annual targets and ensure farmers services adhered on improving farmers Income and livelihood
- Advise the General Manager on the day to day field operations activities and report on all fields’ operations performances as well as advising on the way forward
- Annual Green leaf production increased by 26% as of march 2023 compared to last year
- 130 Ha new development and 150 Ha eq
- Achieved in FY 2022/23
- 15 FFS classes with 297 trained and farmers graduated
- Farm production performance analysed which assisted field team to make follow-up to individual farmer
- Poorly managed large farms ad village farms are rehabilitated and are now back into production
- Some village farms are outsourced and now producing
Senior Extension Officer
Njombe Out growers Services Company (NOSC)
09.2022 - 04.2023
- Oversee all extension services to tea smallholders farmers for improved production, productivity and quality as key company targets
- Sensitization and enrolment of new farmers for new tea development and expansion
- Training of farmers on GAPs and all matters relating to smallholders tea value chain
- Planning for farm input requirements (fertilizer, seedlings and herbicide)
- Supervision and monitoring extension officers performance based on set KPIs
- To ensure that all necessary linkages between Farmers and NOSC, logistics department and the factory are put in place and are functional
- Mentoring and building strong and motivated extension team
- Keeping records for all activities in order to report progress to appropriate authorities or meetings
- Analysing weekly and monthly production performance and use the report as tool for improving production
- Participate in developing rolling budgets and monitoring the pre-set goals
- Respond to any crisis, emergency or any unexpected development all the time for the interest of farmers and NOSC
- Ensure all NOSC farmers comply with the requirements of the voluntary sustainability standards particularly Rainforest Alliance Certification and provide general advice to the system
- Provide advice to the General Manager about overall performance of the company
- Annual Green leaf production increased by 26% as of march 2023 compared to last year
- 130 Ha new development and 150 Ha eq
- Achieved in FY 2022/23
- 15 FFS classes with 297 trained and farmers graduated
- Farm production performance analysed which assisted field team to make follow-up to individual farmer
- Poorly managed large farms ad village farms are rehabilitated and are now back into production
- Some village farms are outsourced and now producing
Farmer Field School Facilitator
Njombe Out growers Services Company (NOSC)
01.2016 - 12.2022
- Registration of farmers in FFS, training farmers and guiding farmers to develop curriculum (core crop topic and other topics of their interest)
- Conducting training on other related topics in collaboration with other stakeholders to facilitate farmers to be able to solve their daily challenges
- Guiding and supervising member farmers on setting trials/experiments and data collection
- Guiding member farmers in discussion, analysis of data and assisting to come up with recommendation based on data analysed
- Coordinating graduation of FFS grandaunts
- Six FFS classes of 240 farmers were mobilized, trained all topics and graduated
- Farmers are now able to keep farm records properly
- Data collected from Experiments/trials established were analysed and its recommendations helped to improve production and quality hence improved income and livelihoods
- Some of the graduated FFS continued as group to do others social activities like VICOBA and poultry keeping
- Member farmer’s confidence increased to the fact that when an opportunity of leadership in different position is available, grandaunts from FFS have high chance of being elected
- 100% of farmers joined the class graduated
Extension Officer
Njombe Out growers Services Company (NOSC)
01.2015 - 09.2022
- Monitor day to day production activities
- Village sensitization meeting and registration of new farmers for new tea farm establishment
- Involved in organizing and training of farmers
- Liaise with Logistic department on spot road maintenance especially feeder roads
- Responsible in awareness creation on electronic weighing system that improved weighing operations and transparency to farmers
- Involved in radio sensitization programs as one way of providing extension services and information to farmers
- Liaise with logistic department on coordinating smallholders Greenleaf deliveries and quality improvement in the entire production chain
- Coordinating and supervising fertilizer application to smallholder farmers as well as block farms
- To train farmers on record keeping
- Coordinated social-economic and satisfaction survey of the project
- Prepares plans of daily activities and communicate to the head of department
- To writes weekly and monthly report and submit to head of department
- Streamlined smallholders leaf collection operations through weigh centres to the factory
- Improvement of Greenleaf production in terms of quality and quantity as results of fertilizer loan scheme, system of Greenleaf transportation, training and leaf count standard
- Expansion of new tea farms achieved as per set target
Agricultural Officer II
Tanzania Smallholders Tea Development Agency (TSHTDA)
Tanga
07.2014 - 11.2014
- To train farmers on record keeping
- Prepares plans of daily activities and communicate to the head of department
- To write weekly and monthly report and submit to head of department
- Mobilize farmers in groups for easy delivery of extension services
- Identify abandoned individual tea field, understanding reasons for abandonment, finding solution and training farmers on how to rehabilitate
- Identify and assess abandoned UJAMAA farms, advising village government to outsource in order to bring those farms into production for income generation
- To advice and train tea smallholder’s farmers on new technologies released by tea research institute
Volunteer Field Technical Officer
Tanzania Smallholders Tea Development Agency
10.2013 - 04.2014
- Assisting site manager in establishment of centralized tea nursery
- Planning and monitoring day to day nursery activities
- Coordinating logistics and distribution of seedlings to farmers
- Training farmers on land preparation and tea planting
Assistant Sustainable Agriculture Management Representative (ASAMR)
Njombe Out growers Services Company (NOSC)
- Assisting SAMR in management and implementation of Sustainable Agriculture Standards
- Training farmers on sustainable agriculture standard/Rainforest standard
- Coordination of training of internal auditors and building capacity to undertake internal inspection properly
- Monitoring and evaluation of internal inspection report to comply with RA-SAN applicable criteria
- Registration of farmers (signing of Agreement contract)
- Ensuring at least 100% of farmers are RA-SAN certified
- Responsible in developing various programs and procedures required for compliance of RA-SAN Standard
- Training of agrochemical handlers and ensuring their health are well checked before they undertake activities in order to reduce health risks
- Responsible in assisting SAMR to develop and updating of database every time when needed
- 100% of farmers were trained on all sustainability topics
- 100% of farmers complied with RA applicable criteria and were certified
- Agrochemical handlers were trained
- Through RA certification, farmers were able to access reliable and premium market
Participated in formation of Farmers Cooperatives and AMCOS
Njombe Out growers Services Company (NOSC)
- Sensitization and mobilization of farmers on the importance of Cooperatives
- Participated in training of farmers on rules and regulations of cooperatives
- Coordination of logistics during sensitization meeting
- Liaise with cooperative officers at district level
- Four tea AMCOSs formed across the operation catchment and are operational
- Farmers are able to access reliable and enough agricultural inputs at affordable costs
- Farmers are now able to present their challenges through their AMCOS to different stakeholders and government authorities
- Farmers collectively linked with reliable market and get good price
- Availability of accurate and reliable production data at one centre
Education
B Sc. Agriculture - General
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Morogoro, Tanzania11.2013
Advanced Certificate of Secondary Education -
Kwiro Secondary School
02.2010
Certificate of Secondary Education -
Isimila Secondary School
10.2007
Certificate of Primary Education -
Kaning`ombe Primary School
10.2003
Skills
- Microsoft Word
- Power Point
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Access
- Internet and E-Mail
- Statistical programmes, Mstat C and GenStat
Languages
- English
- Swahili
Training
- Certificate of achievement RA Sustainable Agriculture Standard CH Training, 10/11/21, Mbeya, Tanzania
- Certificate of participation ISO 9001:2015 - Quality Management Systems Auditor/Inspector Training, 10/04/21, Mbeya, Tanzania
- Certificate of attendance Online Private Quality Management System & Internal Inspector and Farm Assurer Workshop (F&V), 06/22/21, Global G.A.P Academy funded by IFC
- Participated on training of Voluntary Sustainability standards (VSS), 12/15/20, Njombe
- Certificate of Participation training on the 2017 SAN Standard, 05/02/17, Mbeya Hotel
- Certificate in Farmer Field School Facilitator’s Training, 05/30/16, Njombe, Tanzania
- Certificate of Participation in Sustainable Agriculture Standard and Group Standard, 11/10/15, Njombe, Tanzania
- Certificate of Participation in Training Programme on Good Agricultural Practices for better Tea Productivity, 08/17/15, Tea Research Institute Training Centre, Kenya
- Certificate of Participation in Training course on Introduction to Tea Crop Management, 07/01/14, Tea Research Institute of Tanzania (TRIT)
Personal Information
- Number of Children: 3
- Date of Birth: 01/15/88
- Gender: Male
- Nationality: Tanzanian
- Marital Status: Married
- Religion: Christian
Referees
- Mr. Theophord Ndunguru, Director General, Tanzania Smallholders Tea Development Agency, P.O. Box 5815, Dar es Salaam, +255737109364, theophordndunguru@yahoo.com
- Mr. John Mhagama, Ex- General Manager, Njombe Outgrowers Services Company Limited, P.O. Box 252, Njombe, +255784565108
- Prof. Susan Nchimbi Msolla, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Department of Crop Science and Production, P.O.Box 3005, Morogoro, +255754849971, nchimbi@suanet.ac.tz, smsolla@yahoo.co.uk
Timeline
Operations Manager
Njombe Out growers Services Company (NOSC)
05.2023 - Current
Senior Extension Officer
Njombe Out growers Services Company (NOSC)
09.2022 - 04.2023
Farmer Field School Facilitator
Njombe Out growers Services Company (NOSC)
01.2016 - 12.2022
Extension Officer
Njombe Out growers Services Company (NOSC)
01.2015 - 09.2022
Agricultural Officer II
Tanzania Smallholders Tea Development Agency (TSHTDA)
07.2014 - 11.2014
Volunteer Field Technical Officer
Tanzania Smallholders Tea Development Agency
10.2013 - 04.2014
Assistant Sustainable Agriculture Management Representative (ASAMR)
Njombe Out growers Services Company (NOSC)
Participated in formation of Farmers Cooperatives and AMCOS
Njombe Out growers Services Company (NOSC)
B Sc. Agriculture - General
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Advanced Certificate of Secondary Education -
Kwiro Secondary School
Certificate of Secondary Education -
Isimila Secondary School
Certificate of Primary Education -
Kaning`ombe Primary School
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